by Robert Klemko, USA TODAY Sports

by Robert Klemko, USA TODAY Sports

TEMPE, Ariz. -- If you found a degree of humor in Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis' impassioned speeches and pregame dancing during his final NFL season, you weren't alone. The quarterback chuckled, too.

"Oh, it's funny," Ravens quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco told USA TODAY Sports at a charity event Saturday. "His speeches come from the heart, but there's definitely times where I'm sitting there kind of chuckling to myself. It's all good. There's nobody that's more passionate about what he does than that guy.

"So you just sit back and take it all in, but there's times where he says some stuff and you're like, 'Man I don't know what that meant, but I like how he said it.'"

Flacco, 28, joined several current and former pros for Kurt Warner's 'Ultimate Football Experience Presented by Amway's Nutrilite' flag football charity event this weekend at Arizona Cardinals headquarters. A week after signing the richest contract in NFL history -- $120.6 million over six years â?? Flacco said he still has no plans of picking up where Lewis left off as the team's vocal leader.

It's not his style.

"I don't do what Ray does, but I'm the leader of the football team," he said. "I do it in my way. There are people that do it different ways and obviously we're able to do it pretty well."

What is Flacco's style? It's evolving.

Ever since the Super Bowl victory, 34-31 over the San Francisco 49ers more than a month ago, life hasn't been the same. At the flag football tournament, he's relaxed and open to hundreds of autograph-seeking adults and children. He has daily cross-country commitments and fewer nights spent at home in New Jersey.

"There's a lot that goes into it that normally I wouldn't necessarily be all about," he said. "But when you win the Super Bowl, I don't think there's any part of me that doesn't like anything. It's just an event in your life that's so incredible it's tough not to enjoy every part of it."

No kidding.

In a game played with representatives from corporate sponsors, some pushing 50 and wearing fresh-out-of-the-box cleats, Flacco celebrated touchdown passes as he would have during the NFL playoffs â?? with a fist pump and a grin at the opposing sideline.

"I don't even realize I'm doing it," he said.

All weekend long, Warner saw something different in Flacco.

"He's opening up, and that's what happens," said Warner, an NFL Network analyst and two-time NFL MVP. "There's a lot of pressure being drafted high and having to live up to expectations and being a franchise quarterback, and I think what we're seeing is that deep breath - 'I knew I could do it, but now I did it. So now I can relax and be comfortable and be me.'

"He's probably going to be a better quarterback because of it."

Considering what the Ravens are facing in 2013, he'll have to be. Lewis is retired, along with center Matt Birk. Flacco's No. 1 target during a four-game playoff sweep, wide receiver Anquan Boldin, is wrestling with the Ravens over his 2013 salary, which the team would like to reduce in order to keep him on the roster. Boldin might leave the Ravens, but Flacco nonetheless supports his receiver's resistance.

"He's going to stick to his guns and that's the way it should be," Flacco said.

If Boldin departs, it means one more veteran gone from one of the youngest teams in the NFL. Pair that with the Super Bowl hangover that most title-winning teams suffer, and the Ravens seem like a candidate for a slump. But not in Flacco's eyes.

"The good thing with us is that we have a young team," he said. "I think a lot of those guys are motivated, whether it's for team reasons or whether it's because they're emerging as very good players at their positions. We're going to have the same spunk next year because we have all these guys really trying to break through and emerge as stars."

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